Notes on a media day

SAN ANTONIO — As if his growing bald spot wasn’t enough, we got another reminder of 36-year-old Manu Ginobili’s advancing age through new teammate Marco Belinelli, who was 15 when the two met for the first time as players at Bologna in Italy in the early 2000s.

“That’s a little bit crazy because we are going to play together on a big (NBA) team,” said the newest Spur. “I would like to be like him. I’m going to look at him like a dad. I think he’s going to help me a lot this year and that’s good for me.”

Then there was Ginobili’s realization that two of Gregg Popovich’s three bench assistants — Ime Udoka and Sean Marks — used to be his teammates.

“That’s not a good thing when you see your teammate (on the bench) and you go to Orlando and you see your teammate (Jacque Vaughn),” he said. “It’s happening more and more. You go play Oklahoma City and the kid that was helping you out is the GM (Sam Presti). You start to think about how many years have passed. But it makes you feel proud. It makes you feel that what you’ve done in these years was well done.”

FRESH: Kawhi Leonard said he’s completely recovered from the tendinitis that plagued his left knee/quadriceps last season, forcing him to miss a chunk of games early on and never healing the rest of the way.

QUOTE ME: Speaking of Leonard, he was absolutely on fire in his quotably unquotable way.

Asked if he was still struggling to get over the Finals: “Didn’t think about it too much. We lost.”

Asked if he was surprised how well he played in the Finals: “No, not really.”

Asked if he did anything fun this summer: “No.”

Asked what he did do: “Worked out, mentally prepared for the season, rest.”

Asked what he worked on skills-wise: “Everything.”

Asked if what he thought about the Breaking Bad finale: Couldn’t answer, because he’d never heard of Breaking Bad. (Hat tip to Spurs Sports & Entertainment’s Ben Hunt for that one. Follow him on Twitter.)

Kawhi Leonard, ladies and gentlemen! He’ll be here all season, and for many more after that if R.C. Buford and Gregg Popovich have anything to say about it. (Pop once again lavished a boatload of praise on the young small forward, which we’ll post here in the next few days.)

PROUD: Few players have a better idea of what Tony Parker just achieved by leading France to the EuroBasket 2013 title than Ginobili. Ginobili, of course, was part of Argentina’s historic run to the 2004 Olympic gold, a leading entry on his Hall of Fame resume.

““I am really proud of him,” he said. “It is not easy to do and he really needed to get one of those (international) championships in him. He was missing that and I’m very glad he did. The end…made it all worth it. Once you end up with the trophy in your hands and celebrating with your buddies and feeling you are part of the best team in Europe it’s all worth it. You rest three days, four days and you are ready to go again.”

ADJUSTMENT: While the roster remains virtually intact, the additions of Marks and Jim Boylen to replace the outgoing Mike Budenholzer and Brett Brown represent an almost total overhaul of Popovich’s bench staff. Whereas the latter two had almost 30 years of Spurs experience between them before taking over in Atlanta and Philadelphia, respectively, Udoka is now the dean of the group in his second season.

When he wasn’t lamenting the last two games of the Finals, Popovich joked that he’s been fretting about how the new unit will come together this season.

“I walked in the gym and wondered what I was doing here,” he said. “It was like I didn’t belong. They were getting along fine, but I didn’t know any of them. I feel like I’ll have to coach the coaches and let Tim, Tony and Manu take care of the team, and I’ll just show up for the games. I’ll be too busy coaching the coaches. During the games I’m going to look to my right and left and it’s going to feel different to start with.”

He probably doesn’t need to worry much about Boylen, who counts stints as the head coach at the University of Utah and an assistant with Houston’s mid-90s championship teams among his 27 seasons of coaching experience.

Regardless of how strange it might be to be without such familiar faces, Ginobili said the team’s cohesion should make up for anything they’ve lost on the bench.

“It’s going to be different with (two) coaches who are new on the team but the system is going very well here,” he said. “We all know what we do and the core group has been together for a long time and if somebody can do it, I think it’s us. It’s going to be a good experience for everybody.”

HOME AWAY FROM HOME: As you’d expect, this week’s training camp at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs is more than just a chance to visit Popovich’s alma mater.

“Get them in the mountains, get them away from everything,” Popovich said. “Our players who have been here for a while, they can meet the new coaches, learn about them. It’s a good camaraderie thing. When you do it in an environment that’s different for everyone, you kind of come together a bit.”

In addition to getting away from home, the players are looking forward to seeing the gym in which their head coach once starred in the late 1960s.

“I’m looking forward to practice there, go to a new city I’ve never been to and see what the Air Force Academy is,” Ginobili said. “I heard a lot about it from Pop but I’ve never been there so I’m excited about that, too.”

Said Parker, “I’m looking forward to it, trying to get some gossip (on Popovich).”

EXPANDING HIS GAME: When he wasn’t jet-setting around the globe, Danny Green spent his summer trying to add versatility to an offensive game that revolves around an elite 3-point shot and little else.

“The main thing is the counter from the 3-point line,” said Green, who took almost two thirds of his shots from beyond the arc last season. “I assume teams will try to make me do something different than shoot behind the line. So I have to be able to knock down a pull-up, finish at the rim and in the paint with floaters.”

To sum up, Green said he was out with a college teammate, hitting various spots around the city and trying to take his mind off the game. They specifically avoided Live, where they assumed the celebration would be held, only to find it was actually at one of the clubs they visited. Green said mutual friends ushered him over to speak to LeBron James, with whom he played briefly in Cleveland, and left shortly thereafter.

“I went to at least three different places that night,” he said. “I had no idea they were going to be there. When I showed up, I was like, ‘Awwww. I just don’t want to be here.’ I was there for a total of two minutes.”